 For Authors: December 03, 2014 Issue [#6686] |
  For Authors
This week: Characters, Compassion and Community Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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| The owner of a school, a principal, a psychiatrist, a social worker, some teachers, and an audience of parents and educators ... leading to an analysis of motivation and behavior that the writer could tap in to. |
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Hallo, Readers,
At a discussion on the need for creating a ‘caring’ atmosphere in schools, panelists talked about various aspects of compassion, from different perspectives.
This led me to think of people’s motivations and reactions, and how these can be understood and utilized by a writer for her / his characters.
Panelists began by defining ‘caring’. The owner of a school emphasized that every human being wants to be respected and trusted. “Even if a child has made a mistake, it helps to point it out gently,” she said. One of the teachers on the panel was quick to concur. “I am very careful to use polite language with my students – and I always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to them,” she stated. Panelists highlighted the fact that ‘caring’ means different things to different children. “You would use a particular technique to show a five-year-old that you care – but you’d need a different technique for a 13 year old.
”
What does that mean for a writer, understanding characters’ psyches? That everyone wants respect, that this respect needs to be manifested in an appropriate way – and that lack of that respect could lead to a cycle of negativity.
A Professor of Psychiatry discussed the area of Bullying. When bullying takes place, care needs to be taken of the victim as well as the perpetrator, for there to be a conclusive change in the situation. Also, according to him, there can be external methods like surveillance, to check bullying – but an overall attitude of caring tends to reduce bullying internally – students don’t want to browbeat other students if they feel cared for and understand the concept of caring for others.
Several writers work on the theme of bullying in particular, under various circumstances. Works of fiction and non-fiction, studies and papers exist in their hundreds about this topic. A writer who appreciates that care needs to be taken of both victim and perpetrator is a writer who might possibly give the world some insights that could actually lead to a change in the situation.
The area of ‘bullying’ can be stretched to almost any kind of power-play. And here, the author is wise to keep this maxim in mind – to help facilitate change, see it from all points of view.
Further, the panelists agreed that several aspects in today’s schooling are fuelled by fear. Fear of performance and results, fear of non-conformity, fear of assessment and judgement. This puts undue pressure on both students and teachers. To reduce this fear, the Principal tells her teachers to teach for joy, not for examinations. Here, again the writer can create a character based on the underlying motive. Are you teaching for examinations, or for the joy of teaching? Is your character doing (whatever) for (this reason) or (that reason)? While the action might be the same, the emotions and behaviour would change substantially with the motivation.
What does your character do, to cope with a situation? A social worker on the panel stated that providing children with tools to control stress is important. She gave the example of a group of tenth graders in a Government School (here in India, that means economically deprived children) who scripted and performed a sensitive, thought-provoking play about the human soul. The social worker later found out that this was, in fact, a group of ‘habitual offenders’ in school. Drama had greatly helped them express their emotions resulting in an improvement in their behavior.
It is participation in such activities that builds character, forges friendships and creates memories – and that is what the psychiatrist wished that schools would focus on. “If schools thought more along the lines of : what sort of memories of this institution are the students going to carry with them through life? It would create a culture in the school that values caring. Schools should take a firm stand not to be driven by market forces, but to have a philosophy of caring that translates to intention and practice.”
So – going beyond the character’s intentions, what is the intention of the workplace / family / neighborhood / community the character is in? Can writers reflect the world as it is, and can we also show things as they should be, and hope that people aspire to that, somehow, in some small way?
Finally, panelists highlighted the role of the school in society. It is not simply a building but a part of the community, working with parents and caregivers in the interest of the child. Can writers build that sort of empathy with their readers? Can they make their creation a living, vibrant entity in the mind of the reader? To touch minds and hearts, you need more than words on a paper!
Thanks for listening!
Sonali |
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Thanks to A.J. Barretts  for this response to "For Authors Newsletter (May 22, 2013)"
It seems to me, there are times that your story resonates with the readers and there are times that you wonder how you ever wrote what they perceived to be your story. I have received many reviews of my own work and sometimes I am astounded by the symbolism that seems to have crept, all too unknowning to me, into my work. I love to hear how different people see my work, if they agree with it or not. After all, it is the reader who finishes the story a writer only begins it.
Question: Do you think real-life discussions, in whatever career you are in (marketing, software, architecture, medicine, sports ... anything!) can be fodder for stories? What if, every meeting and seminar you attended in your professional life, you also reflected upon as a writer ... ? Would it change what you wrote? Are you doing this already? |
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